In 1998 Anthony Sosnick was growing restless working in his family's Detroit real estate business. One day he stopped by a friend's cosmetics boutique and made a discovery: Although she carried several head-to-toe grooming lines for women, she had no such items for men. Inspiration struck. "I thought we men should have something to call our own," he says.

Now they do. In 2000 Sosnick launched Anthony Logistics for Men. Its 45 products—from soap ($8) to moisturizer SPF 15 ($30)—have become top sellers at Nordstrom, Sephora and Barneys New York. "Other products feel as if you're buying a men's line of a woman's brand," says Shashi Batra, Sephora's vice president of merchandising. "This line has one focus: men and their skin." That's because Sosnick, 33, did his market research. Focus groups in the U.S. and Europe showed males prefer fragrance-free products, plant-based ingredients and simple packaging, all now Logistics staples. Men also tend to lose caps, so Sosnick's potions have them attached.

Sosnick, who lives in Manhattan with wife Katrin, 33, a money manager, has donated $500,000 in profits (he estimates Logistics will generate $5 million in revenues this year) to cancer research. Since Katrin was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in 2000 (she is now in remission), he is especially glad his focus isn't only skin deep. "What started as a business opportunity," Sosnick says, "has been a life-changing experience."

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